(aka what happened at the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum – CKF26 – and RIC Annual Meeting July 2026?)
By David Phipps, York University and Research Impact Canada
+200 mobilizing faculty, students, and staff met in Toronto for CKF26 July 28-30, 70 of them joined to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Research Impact Canada (RIC) and then +20 of them stayed for the RIC Annual Meeting July 30-31 and were joined by more than 15 online.
- 3 mega mobilizing activities
- 1 amazing outcome = connections
Connections at CKF26
CKF is Canada’s biennial knowledge mobilization conference held every year from 2012-2018 and then every other year since then. There were keynote presentations, lightning talks, workshops, roundtables, and poster presentations. In total, 73 contributions were shared. Many of them spoke about the need to forge connections and relationships. We know that knowledge is mobilized through relationships more than through dissemination.
Connections (and re-connections) at RIC 20th
We welcomed Martin Taylor, former VP Research at U. Victoria who partnered with York U to launch RIC in 2006. We were joined by Connie Tang who was Director of RIC Operations from 2019-2025. And lots of other people who were connected to RIC over those 20 years also spoke at the celebration. We even welcomed Peter Levesque who dreamed about knowledge mobilization across Canada with David Phipps before RIC was even a bright idea. Connections were made and renewed.
Connections at the RIC annual meeting
The annual meeting is the business meeting of the Network. It provides a chance to look back at the year that was but also look forward to the following year and the years to come. This was a poignant meeting because 2027 is an inflection point for RIC.
- The RIC Implementation Committee membership was rejuvenated, welcoming four new members: Eli Friedland (Concordia U), Deb Denman (Chronic Pain Center of Excellence for Canadian Veterans), Jayne Morrish (Brock U), and Barb Flynn (U. Regina)
- The RIC strategic plan covers 2024-2027
- The RIC Network Agreement covers 2024-2027
- RIC started to think about a search for a new Lead Institution since York has been lead for 20 years and the Network can benefit from new leadership
Apart from welcoming the four new Implementation Committee members, this was a moment for listening, not decisions. Decisions will be made by the Implementation Committee later in 2026 following this input from RIC members.
In his presentation about evaluating the RIC Network, Assoc. Prof. Stephen MacGregor used the Institutional Healthcheck for institutional self-assessment and identified that connections were cited as the critical element compared to commitment, clarity, competencies and co-production. His evaluation also demonstrated that RIC provides a national scaffolding for connections on training, tools and advocacy for knowledge mobilization.
There were many – too many to list here – shoutouts on LinkedIn for CKF26 and the RIC Annual Meeting. A few notable quotables:
“Three fantastic days at the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum exploring ways to connect with our community, communicate the evidence to different audiences, and amplify the impact of our research.”
- Elnaz Moghimi, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care
“Merci aux organisateurs et organisatrices. Vous avez livré une grande édition de ce rendez-vous incontournable.”
- Luc Dancause, Knowledge Management and Sharing Consultant at Sapiens conseils
“Fatiguée, mais je garde le sourire. Des apprentissages, du partage, des conversations, des connexion. Le Forum canadien sure la mobilisation des connaissances est tout un vibe grâce à la belle communauté par Research Impact Canada.”
- Patricia Dias da Silva, Courtière de connaissances au CReSP
And then David took an extra long weekend and snapped the best photo of a chipmunk on his knee mobilizing almonds instead of knowledge.